Tiagkot.—The leaves of this plant (Pithecolobium subacutum) are employed on Romblon Island in dyeing buri gray. Other names are tagayong, narandauel, saplit (Cagayan); carisquis, ayamguitan (Zambales); tugurare (Pangasinan); inep (Bulacan); malasaga, malaganip, tekin (Laguna); bahay (Sorsogon); tagomtagom (Samar); tique (Rizal).
Kabling.—This plant (Pogostemon cablin) is generally cultivated, though it grows where its cultivation has been abandoned. A volatile oil, used to keep away insects from textiles, is obtained from the leaves. The leaves are used in Tanay, Rizal, in obtaining gray sabutan straw.
Mabolo.—The heart wood of this tree (Diospyros discolor) is known as kamagon. The leaves are employed in Tanay, Rizal.
Castor.—This plant (Ricinus communis) is seldom cultivated in the Philippines but is found wild in all localities. The “beans” yield the oil. The leaves are added to mud in obtaining gray sabutan straw.
Artificial Dyes.
It is commonly believed that artificial dyes are less permanent than natural ones. This is seldom the case; as a matter of fact, some of the fastest and most valuable dyes are now made artificially and many are not procurable from vegetable coloring matters. Most of the cheaper dyes made from coal tar are fugitive; that is, they fade in sunlight or water or in both. They are often still further cheapened by being adulterated with salt, dextrine and the like. Such are the colors which are usually sold by the Chinese tienda keepers and which have caused artificial dyes in general to come into such ill-repute in the Philippines. Many of these “Chino dyes” contain 95 per cent salt. It is the belief, however, that artificial dyes of a good class, so packed and marketed that they will come cheaply to the hands of the dyers and weavers, will drive out of use practically all of the vegetable dyes now employed in the Philippines. The disuse of the natural dyes would not be regretted here, for, with the possible exception of those obtained from sabutan straw in Tanay, much finer colors can be produced with artificial dyes, as to both beauty and fastness. If the time of the workers is considered, the vegetable dyes now employed in the Philippines are more expensive than the artificial dyes, even though the latter are now sold in wastefully small packages and bear the burden of several large profits before they come to the hands of the persons using them.[1]
[1] The Bureau of Education has taken steps to procure a series of dyes suited to each one of the mat straws and other important fibers used in household industries and industrial instruction in the Philippines.